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»Responsible Conduct of Research Plan

The National Science Foundation established a responsible conduct of research (RCR) training requirement effective January 4, 2010. The requirement states that an institution’s Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) must certify on each proposal submitted to NSF that it “has a plan to provide appropriate training and oversight in the responsible and ethical conduct of research to undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who will be supported by NSF to conduct research.”

Chapman University follows the plan outlined below for all NSF AWARDS from proposals submitted on or after January 4, 2010

The Office of Research & Sponsored Programs Administration (ORSPA):

Provides faculty access to the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) modules at: https://www.citiprogram.org/. Faculty members will be asked to choose the RCR module most relevant to their NSF sponsored research. The RCR course modules are: Biomedical Sciences, Engineering, Humanities, Physical Sciences, Research Administration, Social, Behavioral and Education (SBE) Sciences, and a Refresher Course. Each module contains information and short quizzes on the areas identified by the Office of Science and Technology Policy as embodying the Responsible Conduct of Research: Authorship, Data Management, Mentoring, Peer Review, and Research Misconduct. Reviewing the instructional material and taking the quizzes can take up to 30 minutes for each area. The CITI-recommended passing grade for the module is 80%.

Notifies all faculty and principal investigators at the award hand off meeting that they must maintain an updated list of all undergraduate students, graduate students, and post-doctoral researchers performing research supported by those awards for the purpose of assuring that they receive RCR training. This listing applies to such personnel, whether paid, receiving credit or acting as volunteers working on the project.

Maintains records showing compliance with this requirement.

Principal Investigators of NSF awards will:

Provide ORSPA with a list of students and post-doctoral researchers working on relevant NSF-supported research. The list must be updated whenever changes occur and must be sent to orspa@chapman.edu.

Require that all students and post-doctoral researchers who perform research on the NSF award log into the CITI website and take the RCR training module within the timeframe specified by NSF.

Inform each student/postdoctoral researcher that she/he must complete all instructional areas in the CITI module with a total passing grade of 80% or better in order to generate and print a certificate of completion